Oops. Sent this to Mr Mandel by accident the first time. I don't often
submit to the list.
Mark A Mandel wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Feb 2003, David Silberstein wrote:
>
> #And perhaps Verra tipped a word to Sethra to keep an eye out for
> #*this* particular Easterner. After all, how likely was it that Sethra
> #met, and scanned the soul of, this one person reincarnated from her
> #days of the founding of the Empire? Although it also occurs to me
> #that Sethra may have super-secret soul-recognition powers - she knows
> #who Devera is on the battlefield of the Gods.
>
> Aliera seems to have recognized Vlad, her reborn brother, the moment she
> saw him in the Paths of the Dead (the "place", not the book). Sethra had
> known him as Dolivar ("She was supposed to hamstring the yendi*, but she
> missed deliberately" -- Aliera). We don't have to suppose that there's
> anything supersecret about this ability; just that if you've met this
> person in a previous life you can recognize them when you meet again.
>
> * Referring to the snake, not the House, and used as a term of contempt.
>
> So why doesn't Vlad recognize Sethra and Aliera? He recognizes Kieron
> on some level. Maybe he does but doesn't (allow himself to) realize it;
> he's an Easterner, souls don't get reborn anyway (as far as he
> believes), what does he have to do with all this?
Well, I do think he recognises Aliera to some extent. I do not have
_Taltos_ handy, but I read it recently and recall that what finally
convinced Vlad to go to the Paths was Sethra telling him to take hold of the
staff with the soul in it. She said something to the effect of 'do you feel
nothing?' Vlad and Loiosh both feel something and Vlad feels some connexion
with it and recognises traits of its--rather, her--personality. This
sympathy makes him decide he can't leave this person trapped in limbo
forever, or whatever it means to be stuck in a staff with your body in the
Paths of the Dead or else dissolved in amorphia (I assume the first of those
two from all I've read, but have considered the possibility that perhaps
it's the second and Verra just made a brand-new body for Aliera). I'd say
this is at least an unconscious recognition of their souls' kinship.
I could be wrong, though.
--
J A Dusty Sayers
'It is a damn poor mind indeed that cannot think of at least two ways to
spell a word.'
--Andrew Jackson